The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a one-piece buckle and keeper assembly.
Prior to this invention, buckles and keepers were manufactured as separate parts which were assembled by bending or rolling connecting arms attached to the keeper around one end of the buckle. Subsequently, a buckle tongue was pivotally attached to the buckle between the points of attachment of the connecting arms.
With the method of the present invention, the buckle and keeper are manufactured as a single unit. The finished buckle and keeper assembly hereby manufactured has essentially the same appearance as that of the prior art but it is a one-piece unit, thereby eliminating the separate step of connecting the keeper to the buckle. As a result, the product made by the method of the instant invention is stronger and can be manufactured more quickly, easily and economically.
The step of attaching the keeper to the buckle previously required substantial care and time. The connecting arms of the keeper had to be bent with precision to secure their attachment to the buckle and often they had to be soldered to the buckle to assure a rigid connection thereto, and to prevent relative slippage. By eliminating this step, the method of the present invention not only saves much of the time and expense of past methods, but also results in a better product because the keeper and buckle are positively integrated.